Page 134 - GFA – A Different Drumbeat
P. 134
GFA – A Different Drumbeat 134
northern provinces of China, overlapping the first, as it also had agents in Manchuria,
Formosa, and Japan, many of whom were planted in Japanese puppet military,
economic, and political bodies. The third district organization was based in Hong
Kong, and included South China, Hainan, the South Seas, with a link to Japan. Each
district was managed by a business firm set up to trade in Japanese goods, which
facilitated the movement of agents, and each had a director stationed in Free China
in W/T contact with a ‘special delegate’ just inside enemy-controlled territory who
was in turn in touch with agents throughout the district. Later Burma, Malaya, and
French Indo-China, which were of particular importance to SOE, were brought into
the scheme. IIR had an efficient printing department which produced propaganda
material to Findlay Andrew’s order.
The fact remained, however, that none of this was ‘special operations’ in the
accepted sense. The beneficiaries were those who needed information about the Far
East - the British Ambassador, the authorities in Whitehall, the Director of Military
Intelligence in India, the Far Eastern Bureau (FEB) of the Ministry of Information
(MOI). In 1945 an attempt was made to give the British effort in this field more bite
when it was transferred from IIR to the International Intelligence Service (IIS) headed
by General Cheng Kai-Min, the Chinese Director of Military Intelligence. This was an
organization designed to undertake sabotage operations in Japanese-occupied
North China, based on the town of Sian, in addition to the reconnaissance and
intelligence functions of HR. Groups of demolition experts would be supported by
special assault troops, the commander under Cheng being a British officer. A formal
agreement was drawn up through which SOE undertook to provide W/T sets,
technical advice on communications, and British signals officers. They would also
train Chinese W/T operators, and set up W/T stations to link Chungking with Sian.
Had this scheme (which reflects the change of heart on the part of some leading
Chinese, including Cheng Kai-Min, which encouraged them to try to reduce their
dependence on the Americans and rely more on the British) gone ahead it would
have enabled SOE for the first time to carry out extensive sabotage behind the
Japanese lines; but the war ended before IIS could go into action.
Apart from the gathering of intelligence through HR and the dissemination of some
anti-Japanese propaganda SOE accomplished little in China before 1944. In
Chungking Findlay Andrew, in addition to advising the Ambassador (first Sir
Alexander Clark Kerr, and then Sir Horace Seymour), recruited Chinese agents for
India Mission operations in Siam, Burma, and Malaya. Towards the end of 1943 the
Chinese authorized an SOE office, ostensibly the office of the Assistant Military
Attache, in Kunming, run by Lieutenant-Colonel P. H. Munro Faure, with the title of
Military Liaison Officer. It was intended to be a base for sending agents into the
Lashio-Bhamo- Mandalay area of Burma, for training guerrillas for operations there,
and for helping the Ruler (Myosa) of Kokang who was threatened by Chinese bandit
forces (Operation Spiers). There was also ‘the China Coast Section' based on
northern provinces of China, overlapping the first, as it also had agents in Manchuria,
Formosa, and Japan, many of whom were planted in Japanese puppet military,
economic, and political bodies. The third district organization was based in Hong
Kong, and included South China, Hainan, the South Seas, with a link to Japan. Each
district was managed by a business firm set up to trade in Japanese goods, which
facilitated the movement of agents, and each had a director stationed in Free China
in W/T contact with a ‘special delegate’ just inside enemy-controlled territory who
was in turn in touch with agents throughout the district. Later Burma, Malaya, and
French Indo-China, which were of particular importance to SOE, were brought into
the scheme. IIR had an efficient printing department which produced propaganda
material to Findlay Andrew’s order.
The fact remained, however, that none of this was ‘special operations’ in the
accepted sense. The beneficiaries were those who needed information about the Far
East - the British Ambassador, the authorities in Whitehall, the Director of Military
Intelligence in India, the Far Eastern Bureau (FEB) of the Ministry of Information
(MOI). In 1945 an attempt was made to give the British effort in this field more bite
when it was transferred from IIR to the International Intelligence Service (IIS) headed
by General Cheng Kai-Min, the Chinese Director of Military Intelligence. This was an
organization designed to undertake sabotage operations in Japanese-occupied
North China, based on the town of Sian, in addition to the reconnaissance and
intelligence functions of HR. Groups of demolition experts would be supported by
special assault troops, the commander under Cheng being a British officer. A formal
agreement was drawn up through which SOE undertook to provide W/T sets,
technical advice on communications, and British signals officers. They would also
train Chinese W/T operators, and set up W/T stations to link Chungking with Sian.
Had this scheme (which reflects the change of heart on the part of some leading
Chinese, including Cheng Kai-Min, which encouraged them to try to reduce their
dependence on the Americans and rely more on the British) gone ahead it would
have enabled SOE for the first time to carry out extensive sabotage behind the
Japanese lines; but the war ended before IIS could go into action.
Apart from the gathering of intelligence through HR and the dissemination of some
anti-Japanese propaganda SOE accomplished little in China before 1944. In
Chungking Findlay Andrew, in addition to advising the Ambassador (first Sir
Alexander Clark Kerr, and then Sir Horace Seymour), recruited Chinese agents for
India Mission operations in Siam, Burma, and Malaya. Towards the end of 1943 the
Chinese authorized an SOE office, ostensibly the office of the Assistant Military
Attache, in Kunming, run by Lieutenant-Colonel P. H. Munro Faure, with the title of
Military Liaison Officer. It was intended to be a base for sending agents into the
Lashio-Bhamo- Mandalay area of Burma, for training guerrillas for operations there,
and for helping the Ruler (Myosa) of Kokang who was threatened by Chinese bandit
forces (Operation Spiers). There was also ‘the China Coast Section' based on
